THE VILLAGE OF MATA ORTIZ Mata Ortiz is a village of about 1200 people in the state of Chihuahua, Mexico, about 80 miles south of the New Mexico border. It is located in a wide valley on the Palanganas River, in the foothills of the Sierra Madre Occidental mountains.

The village is the site of one of the most remarkable “grass roots” artistic flowerings of modern times. Starting in the 1970’s, a movement to create wonderful pottery has blossomed forth in this dirt-poor village, and the making of varied and high quality ceramics is today the primary livelihood of a majority of the households in the village. It now has one of the largest concentrations of artists in the world.

How Did This Happen? About 20 miles north of the village is the pre-Columbian adobe ruin of Paquimé, once a great city inhabited by a sophisticated native peoples at about the same time as the Anasazi civilization to the north. These ruins are extensive in size, among the largest in North America. These ancient people produced and traded fine pottery on a large scale, and pottery fragments still litter the archeological site today. The son of a poor farmer, and sixth of 11 children, Mata Ortiz native Juan Quezada became interested in the Paquimé pottery, and he set out on his own to attempt to recreate the beautiful pots from the lost civilization. With no knowledge of the craft, this aspiring artist worked in the 1950’s to learn the secrets of obtaining clay and pigments from the surrounding hills and of creating, painting and firing his own pottery. Over time, by trial and error, he began to see results. Yet he was still working most of the time as a farm laborer. By 1976, he had achieved enough proficiency that he brought six of his pots with him when he went up to the U.S. to do seasonal farm work that year. He traded these pots for used clothing at Bob’s Swap Shop in Deming, New Mexico.

An American anthropologist, Spencer MacCallum, visited the shop soon after. He was so taken with the three remaining pots he saw there that he bought them on the spot and vowed to find the person who created them. The shop owner said “they probably came from Mexico.” Later, he set out to Mexico on his search. After some false starts, he visited the city of Casas Grandes in Chihuahua, which is near the Paquimé ruins. There, someone pointed him in the direction of Mata Ortiz village, down a 25-mile-long rough road over the hills to the southwest.

When Spencer MacCallum finally met Juan Quezada, he offered to pay him a stipend out of his own pocket so that the artist would be able to create pots full time, improve his skills and teach others the craft. Thus was the phenomenon of Mata Ortiz born. Juan Quezada started by teaching his immediate family to make pots, then friends and neighbors. By 1995, over 400 villagers had switched livelihoods and become artists. The years have seen a large increase in both the quality and variety of ceramics, and Mata Ortiz pottery is now in demand by collectors around the world. Both Juan Quezada and Spencer MacCallum are still alive and vigorous, well into their 80’s. About 20 years ago, MacCallum relocated to Mexico and now lives in Casas Grandes, near the Paquimé ruins which inspired this amazing art form.

How Are the Pots Made? The pot-making process at Mata Ortiz was developed over many years. Since Juan Quezada did not have a teacher, it was trial and error, adjust and try again. Pot making starts with the clay. The hills around Mata Ortiz are rich with the same clays the Paquimé Indians used. Different colored clays are used for the pottery, but the white clay is the rarest. Initially, potters would seek out their own sources of clay, and they kept the source secret. Clay is put into buckets to soak and later passed through a cloth strainer. Only the clay which has been strained is used to make pottery. No two potters form a pot exactly the same way. They do not use a wheel. First, they use a plaster-of-paris mold, coated with vegetable oil, to form the pot bottom. Then the potter takes a piece of clay and flattens it out like a pancake (tortilla?) to the right thickness and pushes it firmly into the mold. Next, the potter forms a large piece of clay into a doughnut shape and attaches this to the edge of the pot bottom. This is not a small coil of clay to be built up in stages, as with a New Mexico pueblo pot. The clay is pinched, rotated and gently formed into the lower part of the pot then the middle and top part of the pot until it achieves the desired form. The only tools used in this process are a flat metal or wooden blade and a sponge. If the artist is skilled, the pot will have a uniform thickness and evenness. Sometimes, the potter uses a second doughnut of clay to form the rim. This “single coil” method was developed by Juan Quezada. Finally, the pot is dried and sanded, and vegetable oil is applied and rubbed in several times to seal the outside of the pot. Then the pot is polished with a cloth or, to achieve a higher sheen, with a stone. Most of the paints used come from the surrounding area – iron, copper and manganese oxides. Some of the younger artists now use some commercial paints in many colors. The brushes are the finest imaginable, using just a few strands of human hair several inches long, usually from a child. The painting is done with the whole brush, not just the tip. Years of practice have taught the artists the complex and precise techniques need to make intricate geometric shapes and lines. Starting with the rather simple designs of the Paquime Indians, the current stylistic range of Mata Ortiz ceramics is vast. After the paint has dried, the pot may be polished once or twice again, depending upon the effect desired. Most potters fire their pots in a pit in their back yard. A “beehive” of stone with a metal cover is formed over the pot. Then cow chips are piled on this and splashed with kerosene. The fire burns for about a half-hour before the pot is exposed and allowed to cool gradually. It is now finished and ready for use.

MMoCA Mata Ortiz Trunk Show Visiting Artist Families

Elivra Bugarini and Jesus Pedregon with Mia and Raul

Graciela Martinez Quezada and Goyín Silveira with Leslie and Emiliano

The Artists at Work